"The Republican Party has gone insane," influential conservative commentator Erick Erickson wrote this morning. He was referring to GOP'ers support for Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, despite those candidates' one-time backing of individual mandates to buy health insurance-a cardinal sin for conservatives. But he might just as well have been talking about the Republican nomination race writ large, which has turned into a political version of Pick Six. Fifteen days before the Iowa caucuses, the Gingrich bubble has burst, his support dropping by half. Ron Paul is leading in Iowa now-unless, of course, he's actually already lost. Romney is the inevitable nominee again-though a few days ago he was a dead man walking. Perry and Bachmann and Santorum are all sneaking up on the frontrunners in Iowa, while Jon Huntsman is climbing in New Hampshire.
Everyone's a winner!
So They Say
"We posed for a picture, just celebrating the fact that we had raised a lot of money and then we hoped to be able to return it with a good return."
-Mitt Romney, explaining the infamous Bain Capital cash-flashing photo on Fox News Sunday
Daily Meme: Planet Newt Crashes to Earth
- He's weird.
- He wants to arrest activist judges.
- He's been hurt by negative ads.
- He's constitutionally crazy.
- He's toast.
What We're Writing
- Scott Lemieux says GOP candidates are missing the point when they rail about the federal courts.
- Patrick Caldwell reports that Iowa's GOP elite won't be pleased if Paul wins the caucus.
What We're Reading
- E.J. Dionne explains how Newt's always been the same, and the Republican elite has always hated him for the same reasons.
- Scott Brown, with an eye to 2012, blasts GOP's congressional leaders for not making a deal on the payroll tax cut yet.
- Ten RedState contributors say: "Don't Settle: Rick Perry for President."
- Best news of the day: Martin Amis is covering the campaign.
- New Meme Alert: The Weekly Standard digs into Paul's "lucrative and decades-long promotion of bigotry and conspiracy theories."
Poll of the Day
The latest PPP poll shows Gingrich tanking in Iowa; Paul leading; Romney second; and Bachmann, Santorum and Perry lurking.
